Stepping stones
by KawaiiKitsuneGirl
Summary: He's five the first time somebody calls him a freak.


He's five the first time somebody calls him a freak.

It's not like there's anything wrong with him, but every school has a bully and a victim and he's the obvious choice for the latter.

He's just too different; he stands out by blending in (and that's a thought that his five year old self never understood, never understood why they all went for the shy boy with glasses and a nervous smile, low grades and good at sports, a stutter but fluent in German) and he blends in far too well.

They're too young to understand the concept of violence and pain properly. It's all just instinct and open emotions and Kotetsu has the memories of ruined drawings to prove it.

* * *

He's eight when they decide to touch him for the first time.

He's grown a bit too, no longer the shortest of the bunch, but his stutter and accent still linger like a bad dream, only he can't escape this reality.

It's not much, just a single punch when he attempts to take back his bag, only it is the breaking of his world.

* * *

He's eleven when his powers manifest for the first time.

They could have appeared quietly, flickered into existence inside the sanctuary of his room, but instead they flash neon signs at all the children whilst he lies coiled in the playground, a foot to his stomach lying at the edge of the tipping point.

Apparently, his eyes glowed blue then. Kotetsu is fairly certain they were just making it up for kicks.

Regardless, he doesn't breathe a word of it to his mum.

* * *

When he's ten, he activates his NEXT powers in public.

It was an accident, it always is, but Mr Legend told him not to be afraid of them, to use them for good.

How can he tell what's right and wrong when the 'right' people hurt him?

He promises to try. There's no other option for him.

* * *

When he's ten, his dad leaves.

The first Kotetsu knows of it is the fist to his face, so similar and yet so different to the punches that the other boys give him. Those are pale imitations of the true power that his father has, and there's no pulling the pain for Kotetsu (even as his son).

Not long after, his mother runs into his room with tears flooding down his face and Kotetsu just looks at her in understanding.

His father walks out the door (but he was gone long before) and his mum collapses, leaving it to him to comfort her. His older brother, supposedly the mature one, is out with some girl and dismisses everything as Kotetsu's fault.

* * *

It's only a short time later, eleven, that he realises why Muramasa always ignores him, refuses to patch up his wounds, refuses to believe that he hasn't simply been fighting and gained them himself.

Muramasa knows his secret.

He hasn't told their mum, thankfully, but Kotetsu gets so angry with his so called brother that he punches the bullies back for the first time.

It earns him a trip to the main office and a daylong suspension, not to mention a reputation as a delinquent, but Kotetsu doesn't mind all those things when it finally gets them all off his back.

* * *

At thirteen, he reinvents himself.

There's no more bullying for him., and he gains contacts to show himself as a completely new person. He grows as well, and nobody recognises his lanky frame as the young boy who was bullied and then as the young boy who was failing (but they all still remember him as the delinquent NEXT and he lives up to that reputation).

He meets Tomoe, and isn't quite in love at first sight, but it's close enough.

He meets Antonio as well that year, and suddenly his life seems to be working his way up, even as the stigma against NEXT grows (he never was one for politics in the first place).

* * *

At eighteen, he drops out of school to support his mum.

His grades were always poor, but he manages to wangle a job with a travel agent in order to pay the bills and let his poor mother rest a little (his language skills always were excellent).

It's a stepping stone on his way to real life, but it's more than enough.

* * *

He proposes at twenty one.

It's a plain engagement ring (he doesn't earn much) and a plain meal (but they were never the type for fancy dinners) and yet it is the most romantic evening by the river that they ever have.

Tomoe is thrilled with everything, and Kotetsu is just thrilled that she agrees.

* * *

He marries at twenty five.

His wife, Tomoe, is radiant as she grins at him from the other end of the aisle, and Kotetsu cries into her arms that night as he realises that they are actually married, that his life has finally pulled itself together.

Antonio is his best man and serves as proof that some things never change.

* * *

He's twenty six when he becomes a Hero, and it is the third best day of his life (the first being the day of his marriage and the second being the day he met Tomoe).

It's everything he dreamed of, aside from the lack of focus to the survival of the citizens in favour of the camera action, but he can work with it.

Kotetsu's always had a talent for ignoring authority.

* * *

At twenty eight, his wife blesses them with a child.

She's smart like Tomoe and has her looks too, but she gets her headstrong attitude from her stubborn father and doesn't ever stop crying (it slowly drives them both insane but they couldn't love her any more).

Still, they are relieved when she finishes that stage in her life.

* * *

He's thirty two when Tomoe passes away.

They knew it was coming (he had sat at her bedside for months, working it in around his hero duties and his fatherly duties) but it doesn't make anything easier.

Kaede is four by this point, and the three used to live in a house in the city, but he can't handle it after her death (he drinks until he's numb and then puts his daughter to bed, crying as he sings her lullabies).

Eventually, his mum comes to put him in his place and takes away his beloved daughter, taking her away to raise her in a stable home in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

He falls to pieces and this time there's nothing stopping him.

* * *

At thirty three, Antonio kicks him back into life.

He's been barely existing for months on end, unable to face the world without her, but his friend always knows just what to do to help him and so Wild Tiger emerges back onto the scene.

No one gives him the time of day but he couldn't care less; he was surviving but not properly alive again with Tomoe.

* * *

He meets Barnaby at thirty seven.

He starts to live, even as everything becomes deadly.

They don't give up that easily.


End file.
